MUSE 223

Hello!

I made a card for Muse Challenge this week. When I saw Anita's muse card, I just couldn't resist joining in. I loved the brushstroke background with the black image and I created my card using that as the inspiration. My youngest daughter and most of her friends are turning 10 this year, so I made a card for the inevitable surge of birthday parties approaching. :-)

I used SU! Number of Years stamp set.

Isn't this a lovely card? It definitely inspired me!

Thanks for dropping by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Wedding Wishes

Hello!

While playing catch-up on the week-end on the cardmaking front, I made this card to kickstart my mojo. My inspiration came from Muse Card Challenge and Inspired By All The Little Things.

I used Stampin' Up! Rose Wonder, Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background, and PTI Background Basics: Circles stamps.

For my very last minute entry, following Anita's Muse inspriation, I stamped a black and white image, masked, and then added a pink background.

For Inspired by all the Little Things I took the wedding theme and the corner flowers, only mine is a giant single flower rather than the beautiful bouquet of the inspiration.

I'm hoping that I can get a few more cards made over the next couple of weeks to bring me back to schedule so that I can keep up with my regular posting again. ;-)

This week I'm off to Sydney for work for most of the week. Everyone cross your fingers for clear weather for me, at least in the evenings. I really want to head out to Vivid while I'm there to see the gorgeous lights.

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

CAS(E) This Sketch 218

Hello!

I've had a little rest from blogland, but I'm back! I've managed to pick up a cold and my chest, nose, and throat are telling me all about it. Crossing my fingers for a quick recovery, but considering work is still just as crazy, I'm struggling a little. ;-)

I'm here for CAS(E) This Sketch 218 where the sketch is another awesome one for the "works for every occasion" stash.

I used Altenew Beautiful Day stamps and PTI sentiment.

I will admit that apart from the awesome sketch, my stamping was purely inspired by the very clever Jenni Murray, who used this exact stamp to create an amazing background on her card for MUSE Card Challenge this week. I was awestruck the moment I saw Jenni's card. GORGEOUS!

Thanks for coming by to visit me! I hope you're inspired to join us over at CAS(E) This Sketch!

Michelle
xxx

Muse 183 - watercolour butterflies

Hello!

I've created a card for the current Muse Card Club Challenge 183 where Tracey has given us the most gorgeous watercoloured beauty to CASE. I was instantly inspired and then it took me several days to find some time to make this card.

I used Happy Little Stampers Butterfly Birthday stamps. The die is Mama Elephant Femme Frames. I coloured using Winsor & Newton watercolours.

This is the beautiful inspiration.

While I was watercolouring AND using Happy Little Stampers stamps, I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring for the watercolour design team at Happy Little Stampers. :-) 

After a very busy week, I've had a relatively quiet week-end, which is a blessing! My kids just started their Spring holidays and it's nice to just hang around at home with them with no homework or sports to worry about. ;-) 

Thanks for coming to visit!

Michelle

xxx

MUSE181 and NBUS7 - Happy Day

Hello!

I've created a card for Muse Challenge 181 and for Darnell's NBUS Challenge 7. After a very, very  long time of waiting and several frustrated attempts to buy this stamp set (sold out EVERY time I went to buy it), I recently finally got my hands on Altenew's Beautiful Day stamps. By now I think every idea may have been exhausted by our very talented crafting community but that won't stop me exploring them all again myself! :-)

I took the basic layout of Sarah's Muse card and turned it on its side. I masked and stamped the side strip, masked and stamped the leaves, and then stamped and fussy cut the flowers before arranging them. Once I finished, I decided my sentiment needed to be small to balance the rest of the design (sometimes I get carried away). The sentiment is from Altenew Hennah Elements. Inks are Altenew.

This is Sarah's beautiful Muse inspiration card.

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

MUSE 149

Hello!

This morning I saw the loveliest crisp and bright card by Tracey over at MUSE Card Challenge, and I fell in love. So tonight I took a little bit of time to CASE Tracey's card and join in the fun!

My card:

I used Mama Elephant Party Kit and Wplus9 sentiments.

Tracey's Muse card:

Isn't it beautiful?! I took the colours of her flowers and the card layout as my inspiration. I would have copied completely if I could. ;-)

Thanks for dropping by!

Michelle
xxx

Hello Friend!

Hello!

You all know I can't resist a great CAS inspiration, so it won't be a surprise to see me joining in over at MUSE Card Club this week! I didn't get terribly creative, I basically just recreated the inspiration card, because I love it so much! :-)

I used PTI Birds & Blooms stamps.

This is the inspiration card from our Muse Joan.

Because I have used that little twine bow on my card, I am also entering into Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Simon says to Tie it Up!

This week we have a public holiday on Wednesday. I will be celebrating my aunty's 80th birthday with our family. I'm so looking forward to a week where I am at home and where I get a bonus day with my family. :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

MUSE 90 - red and yellow celebration

Hello!

I love the inspiration at Muse Card Club this week. I would have loved to have completely copied Marion's gorgeous, fun card from top to bottom... but I didn't. ;-) I used the colour scheme and scattered my images "bursting" around the sentiment, as in the inspiration.

I used PTI Sentiment Signs and Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments. Colours are SU! Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight.

We have the most amazing day here in Brisbane today. Hot and a little windy. The wind takes the heat away just enough to enjoy it. In our front yard we have a jacaranda flowering purple and in the back yard is a giant oleander covered in pale pink. The sky is clear blue. It's my hubby's birthday and it's turned into the perfect day for it. :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

MUSE 88 - hello in gold

Hello!

The past couple of weeks have been challenging creatively. My mojo has gone on holiday. Today I sat down and made a few cards. Some will never see the light of day, lol! But this one, I quite like. I was inspired by Vicki's card over at Muse this week. Truth be told, I'm inspired by Vicki regularly. She makes great cards, full of colour and life!

I used Waltzingmouse Stamps Fine Feathers, wPlus9 Hand-Lettered Hello stamps. Gold embossed on black card. I'd forgotten how fabulous gold on black is!

I am hoping my creativity reappears sometime soon and I can make a few more shareable cards. ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Muse 72 and CASology 100

Hello!

One of my favourite, and very neglected, challenges is Muse Card Club. I really wanted to play along last week, but I didn't make it in time. This week, I'm squeezing in at the last minute, but at least I've made it in time!

Another favourite, and neglected, challenge is CASology. Casology is celebrating their 100th challenge with the cue word, CELEBRATE! Congratulations CASology team on reaching this fabulous milestone!

For this card I took Marion's beautiful layout, changed the colours, and voila! A bright pink celebration!

I used Altenew stamps - Hennah Elements and Label Love.

Thank-you for coming by to visit!

See you again soon!

Michelle
xxx

Pink Christmas!

Hello!

Last week, the evening before I went away for work, I received a parcel in the mail. My Mama Elephant order had arrived! I have just spent several frustrated days being unable to dig straight into this wonderful new stash of goodies - stamps, ink, dies! This card is the first I made, and there will be many to follow, I'm sure!

I just LOVE Mama Elephant. And I love the products even more now that they've expanded to include dies and ink. I can tell you that the stamps, dies, and inks are all excellent quality, I've tried them all. ;-) Anyway, onto my card. I made this for this week's Muse Challenge. Therese made a Christmas card with non-traditional colours, using snowflakes, so did I. :-)  I used Mama Elephant Merry Greetings and No Peeking. The dies are Femme Frames. Colours are SU! Pretty in Pink and Memento London Fog.

Today I watched my eldest daughter's end of year string ensemble concert. All of the school ensembles played - 8 ensembles for kids ranging from Grade 2 at school (beginner string students) to Grade 12 at school (most of them advanced string students). There were some amazing performances, as always. I'm always so proud watching the kids play so beautifully.

Now I'm off to bed for some beauty sleep before starting the work week again tomorrow. Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

RIC#43 and MUSE#33

Hello!

It has been so long since I sat down to play along with Runway Inspired Challenge and Muse! These are two of my favourite challenges, and my busy life has interfered with my playtime! But, when I saw the RIC Inspiration photo I was determined I would not miss this week. Since crafting has been a bit slow around here, I needed a little extra inspiration to get me started... and then I saw Laurie's card at Muse. Laurie provides me guaranteed inspiration in every single card she makes. :-)

So my card is Laurie's design wrapped up in Lela Rose Resort fashion!

I used Mama Elephant Basic Borders to stamp the plaid. Sentiment is from PTI Stylish Sentiments: Birthday. Card is SU! yellow (Sunshine? It's retired), Basic Black, PTI Soft Stone. Sequins are from Avery Elle. Ink is Memento Tuxedo Black.

Laurie's card for Muse #33

Runway Inspired Challenge #43 inspiration.

I made this card after bedtime last night, and I'm blogging instead of preparing the kids for school and me for work, so I'd better get back to it. Sneaking crafting and blogging time is tricky, LOL!

Thanks for visiting! I apologise for my slow commenting. I do visit as often as I can, but comments are often beyond my time constraints.

Michelle
xxx

Sequins!

Hello!

I'm slipping in at the last minute with an entry to Muse #23 where the Guest Designer is Anita (in France). I love Anita's work, and I couldn't resist playing along. This is my card.

I used PTI Round Repeats and Avery Elle Modern Leaves (sentiment) stamps. Colours are SU! Daffodil Delight, Memento Grey Flannel and Tuxedo Black. Sequins are Avery Elle.

This is Anita's card.

You can see that I pretty much took the layout and turned it on its side. I changed the colour scheme to work with the sequins that I own, because I just HAD to use sequins when CASEing this gorgeous blingy card! :-)

I have another shot of my card, to show you that my sequins really do shine.

I'm also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.

Before I go, I'll show you a quick couple of photos I took this afternoon. All day it has been rainy and very cloudy here. At sunset, the sky was still covered in low grey clouds, but at the horizon was a small gap where the sun was shining through. The sun lit up the clouds so that they shone orange, turning everything around orange for about 15 minutes. A beautiful colourful end to a dreary day. This photo is unedited, so not showing perfectly what I saw, but it's close.

And this is my daughter turned orange while she edits her own sunset photo on her iPod.

Thanks for coming to visit me!

Michelle
xxx

I'm a MUSE!!

Hello!

I'm so excited! I'm a Guest Designer over at Muse Card Club!

In making my Muse card I wanted to use my own style, which is usually super-CAS, but also add some extra interest so that there was something for everyone to work with. My card is one-layer, but I'd love to see some layered versions of this one! I've been wanting to try this folk-art inspired style for a while, and this was my chance. :-)

I used PTI Birds & Blooms, and Sentiment Signs. Colours are PTI Berry Sorbet, Memento Pale Tomato and Tuxedo Black, SU! Daffodil Delight, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Blushing Bride.

I'd love to see you joining in with Muse this week! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Thanks for visiting me!

Michelle
xxx

Muse #18

Hello!

I've made a card for Muse Challenge #18. It is the end of a long and tiring week at work, so I'm not sure how my creativity is going...  here is my card. :-)

I used Simon Says Stamp Flower Friend. The patterned paper is PTI Hibiscus Burst. The little hearts are washi tape. Inks are Hero Arts Pale Tomato Shadow Ink, SU! Primrose Petals, Cameo Coral, Pretty in Pink, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, and Memento Tuxedo Black.

The Muse this week is Marion Vagg. The Muse team is seriously awesome! This is Marion's card.

Marion used Jane's Doodles Doodle Flowers. I love this set, but I don't have it yet. I sat looking at my other Jane's Doodles stamps, hoping for inspiration, but it just didn't come tonight. So I pulled out Flower Friend by Simon Says Stamp instead. I love Marion's colouring. I don't have copics (or any other colouring pens), so it was either paper-piecing or bright stamping. My tired old brain called for stamping to save me the fussy cutting, LOL!

Thanks for coming to visit. I'll be back over the week-end with some more cards, I promise!

Michelle
xxx

Muse #16

Hello!

I received the most awesome little package in the mail today from one of my blog friends. It held chocolates, stamps, and a gorgeous card. The chocolates are ones that are not available here in Australia, and I was curious about how they would taste. Now, I'm not really a chocolate person, but I was wondering about these ones, and today I tasted Turtles for the first time... they are DELICIOUS! I gave one to my little girl and she announced, "I LOVE American food!"  For those of you who don't know, Turtles are pecans and caramel covered in chocolate, a perfect combination!  So to my friend, I say THANK YOU, your thoughtfulness really made my day.

I used PTI Sentiment Signs stamps, and Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments (stars). The star dies are WPlus9. Twine is Caribbean by The Twinery. The border is washi tape. Colours are SU! Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Memento Tuxedo Black, and PTI Hawaiian Shores (patterned paper).

My card was made for Muse Challenge #16, where the Muse is Laurie Willison. Laurie is an amazing card maker who truly is one of my muses every day. I adore her work. Laurie's card is this one. I kept the red card base, and the basic layout, making minimal changes in my own card.

And now, it is time to get some beauty sleep.

Thank-you for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

I'm back from the wilderness!

Hello!

Well, maybe I wasn't in the wilderness, but it felt like it with no internet connection. Whoever heard of a three day outage of cable internet in this modern age? Forget for a moment that this is a modern-age problem... It was also a 3 day Foxtel cable tv outage, but I don't have cable tv, and I don't watch tv much at all, so that didn't bother me... I imagine those people who watch tv were doubly devastated, no tv and no internet as a backup option for entertainment, LOL!  I coped relatively well, interspersed with a few well-chosen barbs thrown at the telephone company via their various avenues for complaint. My kids were ecstatic to find it working tonight.

Back to why I'm actually here. I've made a card for Muse Challenge. This is it:

I used PTI Postmarks, and Stylish Sentiments: Birthday, and Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background. Colours are SU! Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, and Real Red.

When I saw Virginia's beautiful card this week at Muse Challenge #14, my card is not what I originally had in mind. But this is what came out of my fingertips when I sat down to create. Virginia's inspiration is slightly different to my creation, but I think the inspiration is evident in the masked, offset sentiment frame.

Yesterday we spent the morning at the local ANZAC Day march and service. Watching the old returned servicemen from our local area marching so proudly made me all teary. The service was excellent, as always.  I will put some photos up over on my photo blog sometime in the next couple of days. Here is one.

Thanks for dropping by to visit. Now I'll try to make up for my lack of visiting and commenting from the past couple of days.

Michelle
xxx

Muse #13

Hello!

Just a quick one tonight. I'm a bit tired, and ready for some sleep. I just didn't want to miss out on this week's Muse Challenge #13, and it will be closing soon.

I used PTI The Sweet Life. Inks are SU! Barely Banana, Daffodil Delight, Pretty in Pink, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, and PTI Fine Linen, Memento Tuxedo Black.

The inspiration comes from the always amazing Marion Vagg.

For my card, I stamped the central flower and then used masking to stamp the rest. This was a little tricky with the layered stamps in this set, maybe it's just me, but I found finding the correct position while masking almost impossible.

I'm also entering this into Addicted to CAS #11 where the code word is flower.

I hope you like the card. Thank-you for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Yay! It's your birthday!

Hello!

Well, maybe it isn't YOUR birthday, but I was having trouble thinking up a header... and it IS someone's birthday, that's why I made this card. ;-)

I used PTI Turning a New Leaf and Stylish Sentiments: Birthday stamps. The flowers are MFT Die-Namics. Colours are PTI Hibiscus Burst PP, and SU! Garden Green and Night of Navy ink.

I made this card for Muse Challenge #12 where Therese Calvird is our Muse this week with this gorgeous card.

I looked, and looked again, and decided that I was not going to do Therese justice if I just copied this card. Therese has already made this one to perfection. I made a stylised version. ;-)

I used the colours from the April CARDS Blog Challenge.

  Today I am spending the day with my real-life stamping friends. Finding a day in school holidays where none of us are working, or busy, is just heavenly. Our kids run rampant, totally ignored by their mothers, and we spend a lot of time chatting, and a little time putting ink to paper. ;-)

Thanks for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx